Somewhere East of Life

And in many different ways.

Migraines
I've been to a neurologist for my migraines finally. It was a disappointment. I didn't particularly like the man, but then I didn't think I would considering there isn't any headache certified neurologists in the Treasure Valley area. I did get the medication research showed would help the type of migraines I think I have, so that's at least a plus. My migraines are on the decline.

On a related note, the medication I'm on is an appetite suppressant. My regular doctor had originally suggested this medication simply on the basis that I need to lose weight. Poor reasons, but it was as good a reason as anything else given his knowledge of migraines (my regular doctor is an internal doctor, and migraines aren't exactly his specialty either). I figured if anything, I could at least take advantage of this feature of the medication to take control of my eating habits to start eating healthier.

Which I have. In the last 4 weeks since I started taking my medication I've lost 10 pounds. I've got a follow up with my new neurologist next week, then my regular doctor two weeks again after that. Hopefully I can lose even more by then.

Moving
On a different note, my mother and I are making plans to move across the other side of the country. She's retired now, and wants to live closer to our family. It's going to a nightmare to do that, and planning the logistics of it all is going to be a nightmare. In the meantime, we're going through the process of noting down what needs to be fixed in our current house so we can get it ready for sale.

I'm not looking forward to it. Mostly because I don't really want to live in the south. But I really want to live closer to my family, and I think it will be a good think in the long run for us. It will just be a hard thing to go through.

And so it goes
Other things are going well. A few financial things lingering on from my divorce have finally fallen off, which is only of the good. I've been thinking of taking some online classes to get some programming certifications later on, so that will make things easier. Writing has been much easier for me these days too, both fan fiction and original. Maybe some day something of it will be published. I've actually got about five fan fiction stories on the go right now that I've not put online yet, and another six book ideas that are on the back burner for the future.

I'm going on vacation mid June to see my sister for a bit. Hope all is going well with y'all.

The Retirement Saga
Had a bit of an odd weekend. Saturday I went out to Mom's office to help her clean it out and get everything moved out. It took us 9 hours to finish the process and get her things either packed up to take home, or transferred over to her temporary cubicle for her last 2 weeks. I think her plans for the home stretch there are to finish out projects, clean out her file cabinets (all bazillion of them), and help train the new guy.

Its a rather strange process to begin with. Her boss had the brilliant idea to hire a new guy before she left so she could help train them. Sounds reasonable, right? The only problem was her boss hadn't taken into consideration how that was going to happen. At first, her boss thought to just have her telecommute. But her office and computer were to be given to the new guy. You can't telecommute without having a system to log into, and a general computer wouldn't have her work files available. For that she'd need her work desktop. So, new guy can't have her computer. But since they're giving her office away before she leaves, where will they setup her computer? Plus, she still has billions of files to go through.

So in the end, the offered up a spare cubicle in another department for her to use. Saturday, we also packed up the majority of her files into boxes and took them over to her cubicle so she can go through them in her leisure in her cubicle without bothering the new guy too much.

In all honesty, I don't think she'll telecommute much, except for maybe a day or three when she isn't feeling at her best.

The Gardening Saga
Mom and I finally got time to do some gardening together on Sunday. We still didn't get the side bed planted with our new plants, but at least the majority of the weeds are gone. The bed stretches along the entire side of the house, so it's a bit big. It's also been taken over by lawn grass. At one time we had put newspaper underneath to prevent that, and it worked. But it's since composted.

I'm planning on putting down ground cover. Maybe some creeping thyme, or some royal carpet alyssum. I've got seeds for both, so I may just throw a bunch down and see what comes up. I have some creeping jenny that I know will take over pretty easily too, but that stuff is hard to pull up once it establishes itself somewhere (we had some jump out of a pot by the front porch and work itself into the lawn this last season).

Hopefully over the next day or two I'll get the ferns and columbines planted in there. It is, as ever, a work in progress.

The Tree Saga
On a related note to the retirement, Mom has a ginormous tree in her office she's bringing home tonight. My job is to rearrange the living room (and clean it out a bit) to make room for it. Should be fun. I've got a spot picked out, now I just need to make sure it ccan go in there. Not looking forward to that, but at least I have something to keep me busy for today.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Has this become a yearly update? I tend to journal more in my personal diary more these days. Plus, I'm all over social media. I recently updated my profile if that's of any interest to you. If not, prepare to be spammed. I've got most everything I do these days cross-posting to Twitter, from my various articles to my Polyvore boards. So in light of that I'll be making sure those end up here. I don't ever cross-post my entries to my social media, so that's a relief there at least. I'm sure that you won't ever hear from me much if I don't do it this way. Such is life.

Life as we know it
Speaking of life, it's rather weird right now. I've been doing a lot of writing. Some Harry Potter fan fiction, but mostly my own things. My dreams are, and always have been, very weird. So I'm putting some of them in either book or script format. I'm afraid with my migraines as they are I'm rather home bound at the moment. So I do what I can. I also freelance writing, social media managing, and graphic design for various outfits. I keep busy when I can.

The wonderful world of fangirling
Fandom is an ever evolving thing for me. I'll always love my first true blood fandom, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I no longer follow it in any way. I'm still in love with Harry Potter to some degree (if by degree you count obsessively reading fan fiction), and I've even involved my mother in that (whoa nelly!). I don't have cable TV anymore either, and as many do these days I've only got my trusty Netflix. I tend to watch British mysteries these days more than anything (Inspector Lewis, Rosemary & Thyme, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, etc.), and documentaries more than anything. I'm still always up for a weatherpocalypse, ghost haunting, murder mystery, or action thriller (anything with an abnormally high body count and awesome fight scenes).

Retiring and other life events
My mother is retiring soon. I've been helping her renovate her condo to prepare for sale. She's wanting to pack up and move to parts unknown when that happens this summer, though likely won't actually move to another state for another year. She's been carefully examining every state for retiree tax benefits, crime rates, weather, cost of living, and etc to pick the very best state. So far she's got her eye on either northern Nevada or southern Wyoming. I'm sure my sister would have loved it if we moved southeast to be closer to her, but Mom seems to have an aversion to all things racist and Bible Belt. We've taken a look in and around close to her state, but can't seem to find anything that doesn't just make her skin crawl with the idea of sharing breathing space with them. I don't think my Mom ever really did grow out of the 60s, but that's entirely a good thing I think. She was ahead of her time in terms of treating people fairly and equally. Gotta love her.

And so it goes

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll keep far more updated than I have in the past if for no other reason than I've got a new laptop to play with and plenty of free time. Catch up with me on social media if you're out there. I'd love to hear from you all (at least the ones I don't already talk to).